Wednesday, September 12, 2012

(Annapolis, Maryland)- Annapolis Race Week (ARW) is a Mid-Atlantic
Region annual event that occurs every year over Labor Day weekend off
the famous shores of Annapolis (a.k.a. "Naptown"). The 3-day event
offers a significant and unique opportunity for sailors to party and
have fun on the city-front right in the city square where the enormous
Annapolis Sailboat Show is held every year in October. There were
significant fleets of one-design J/Teams sailing, including J/24s,
J/35s, J/30s, J/105s and J/80s. Plus, J/111s sailed in PHRF class.

J/24s had six boats participating with Paul van Ravenswaay's team on
MILLENIUM FALCON walking off with top honors with four 1sts, one 2nd and
three 3rds for 15 pts total. Second was Paul Ford on WILDCARD with a
4-3-3-4-3-1-1-3 record for 22 pts. Just one point back was Peter Rich
on USA 4006 with a 1-5-4-1-4-2-4-2 tally for 23 pts.

In the J/35s, a strong contingent of seven boats sought the "holy
grail", but in the end it was Masci McGonigle's WINDEPENDENT that just
squeaked out a win with a 1-1-2-6 score for 10 pts. Just behind them
the score was settled on a tie-breaker with Pete Scheidt's MAGGIE
beating out Chuck Kohlerman's MEDICINE MAN. MAGGIE's 3-5-1-2 for 11 pts
was better than the Med-MAN's 2-2-3-4 also for 11 pts.

The J/105s had the one of the large one-design racing division with
seventeen boats participating. Jack Biddle's RUM PUPPY was "alpha male
dog" here with a fairly dominating 4-2-3-1-1-2 for 13 pts. The next
four boats had to fight it out amongst themselves for 2nd and 3rd on the
podium. Carl & Scott Gitchell's crew on TENACIOUS emerged from the
smoke-filled field of battle as top of the pack with a 1-4-5-11-7-1 for
29 pts to snag second place. They just managed to beat the VELOCE gang
with 31 pts who finished 3rd. Fourth was Andrew Kennedy's BAT IV with
32 pts and fifth was Carolyn & Chris Groobey's JAVA.

J/30s had a nice turnout with seven boats and it was quite clear the top
three had an incredibly competitive series. Setting the BETTER
MOUSETRAP was Bob Putnan, sailing to a steady 1-3-1-4-2-2 for 13 pts.
One point back BEPOP'ing around was Bob Rutsch and Mike Costello with a
3-1-3-1-3-3 for 14 pts. Then thirsting INSATIABLY for more was Ron
Anderson's crew managing to smoke the fleet for two picket fences on the
last day, but not enough to overcome his friends in 1-2. So, Ron's
4-2-5-3-1-1 for 16 pts meant they had to settle for 3rd.

The largest one-design fleet sailing were the J/80s with eighteen boats
on the starting line. In the end, it was Kristen Robinson's
much-improved team winning by a substantial margin- their 1-3-2-4-2-2
for 14 pts meant they had a 7 pt margin of victory. Second was Ray
Wulff on GORILLA PANIC! with a 3-7-3-2-1-5 for 21 pts. Third was John
White's team just one pt back. Fourth was Todd Olds on TSUNAMI with 29
pts and fifth was Clarke McKinney sailing AUNT EDNA'S DEAD with 34 pts.

In handicap world of PHRF A-1, the J/111s had a dog-fight for top to the
pack. This time, it was Tony Culotta's CUORE DI LEONE overcoming the
well-traveled VELOCITY for top banana. Tony's crew managed to garner
the identical score of 2-1-2-1 for 6 pts to Marty's 1-2-1-2 also for 6
pts, with the winner being who won the last race! For more Annapolis Race Week sailing information